Daniel I. Pineda

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles using laser absorption spectroscopy to investigate advanced chemical propulsion under Professor R. Mitchell Spearrin in the Laser Spectroscopy and Gas Dynamics Laboratory. My research interests are primarily focused in optical diagnostics, rocket propulsion, ignition kinetics, and fuel reformation. In almost all my research projects, I emphasize the intersection of both experimental and modeling uncertainty—measurement concepts that depend on each other for the advancement of scientific understanding. Additionally, I formally mentor the Rocket Project at UCLA, a team of undergraduate students building liquid-propellant rockets for competitions. In the winter of 2018 and again in 2019, we broke the collegiate altitude record for an entirely student-built liquid propellant rocket.

I will start as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at San Antonio in Fall 2020.

I am a highly versatile scientist and engineer, with experience encompassing the development of quantum mechanical and chemical kinetic models and spectroscopic measurement techniques to the field-testing of custom rocket engines in the desert. My varied experiences in the thermal sciences uniquely position me to solve society's most challenging and convoluted energy problems.

I obtained my Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where I worked under Professor Jyh-Yuan Chen in the Mechanical Engineering Combustion Modeling Laboratory, in which I researched advanced ignition techniques for automotive engines. My M.S. thesis in 2014 focused on the surface chemistry of char gasification reactions. I am also a B.S. graduate from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin with an emphasis in Thermal Fluid Systems. From 2010 to 2012, I was also an Undergraduate Research Assistant for the M.E. Department, helping to research combustion energy systems with a focus in rich combustion for syngas production under Dr. Janet Ellzey.

During my last semester at UT Austin, I was part of a senior design team which designed and manufactured a Mass Loss Calorimeter—a radiant heating and ignition apparatus for fire testing—for Dr. Ofodike Ezekoye’s fire science research group. Specifically, I was responsible for the heating control and data acquisition components of the device. The device will be used to gather important flammability and fire hazard characteristics of various residential and industrial materials. More information can be found in our final report here.

From 2009 to 2012, I was also a Clerk-Associate for Dental Dean’s Office of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Dental School, processing volumes of patient information for research purposes relating to public health. I designed and maintained the organization website for Dental Education Outreach Network, whose primary purpose is to extend the benefits of dental public health initiatives to disadvantaged populations in the South Texas Colonias, isolated communities along the Texas-Mexico border.

In the summer of 2011, I worked for the Water Technologies Group of the Layne Christensen Company (now known as Layne Energy Services) as a Mechanical Engineering Intern, where I primarily helped with the planning of a scaled down version of an evaporative industrial wastewater reduction system known as EVRAS.

Email: dipineda at ucla dot edu

Selected papers, posters, and projects on which I have worked:

Optical diagnostics and spectroscopy:

Line mixing and broadening of carbon dioxide by argon in the v3 bandhead near 4.2 µm at high temperatures and high pressures - Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer

Deep neural network inversion for 3D laser absorption imaging of methane in reacting flows - Optics Letters

Interband cascade laser absorption of hydrogen chloride for high-temperature thermochemical analysis of fire-resistant polymer reactivity - Applied Optics

MHz mid-infrared laser absorption sensor for carbon monoxide and temperature behind detonation waves - AIAA SciTech 2020

Line mixing and broadening in the v(1 → 3) first overtone bandhead of carbon monoxide at high temperatures and high pressures - Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer

Multi-isotopologue laser absorption spectroscopy of carbon monoxide for high-temperature chemical kinetic studies of fuel mixtures - Combustion and Flame

Time-resolved laser absorption imaging of ethane at 2 kHz in unsteady partially premixed flames - Applied Optics

High-pressure and high-temperature gas cell for absorption spectroscopy studies at wavelengths up to 8 µm - Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer

Tomographic laser absorption imaging of combustion species and temperature in the mid-wave infrared - Optics Express